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Missa brevis

Introduction

Despite its title, Palestrina’s famous Missa brevis is one of the most substantial and sonorous of all his Mass-settings to be written in four parts. The reason for its title (meaning ‘short Mass’) is a mystery, though the use of it may be connected with the lack of any obvious model for the setting. Early in his career Palestrina liked to use other composers’ motets or plainsong chant to rework in parody fashion, an old and respected technique. Many people have looked for such a model in this case, but without success. Plainsong was the most likely starting-point, but if so the melodies are not consistently applied. The Mass was first published in 1570 and was a success from the start, being reprinted several times before 1620. There have been countless modern editions.

The most likely explanation for this general descriptive title ‘brevis’ is that no other came readily to hand. In other cases of a ‘free’ setting, ‘Sine nomine’ was common; but some of these, like the one which has recently been proved to be based on Josquin’s motet Benedicta es, are bigger pieces in terms of the number of voices employed, and perhaps a distinction between the titles ‘Sine nomine’ and ‘Brevis’ is implied. Not that anyone ever proposed the title ‘Missa Longa’. The idea that the word ‘brevis’ comes from the fact that every movement starts with a breve in the original notation is discounted since literally hundreds of works start with this note-value and it is hard to imagine anyone fixing on this detail as being worthy of comment.

The music has a strong character, confidently written, with the motif of the falling minor third, usually followed by upward movement by step, appearing very regularly. This happens not only at the beginning of most movements, but frequently during them, for instance in the remarkable sequence in all the parts to the word ‘Amen’ in the Credo. This interval alone goes some way to explain the unusually subtle cohesion which the Missa Brevis displays on close acquaintance, where a casual glance might judge it to be disparate. The music is for SATB, increasing to SSATB for the beautiful second Agnus Dei. The phrase at the beginning of the first Agnus – an ascending scale – is inverted at the beginning of the second, which rounds off the music in the most satisfying way.

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Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of goodwill.
We praise you. We bless you.
We worship you. We glorify you. We give
thanks to you for your great glory.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God the Father,
O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
You take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
You take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
You sit at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For you only are holy.
You only are the Lord.
You only are the most high, Jesus Christ.
With the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of goodwill.
We praise you. We bless you.
We worship you. We glorify you.
We give thanks to you
for your great glory.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God the Father,
O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
You take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
You take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
You sit at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For you only are holy.
You only are the Lord.
You only are the most high, Jesus Christ.
With the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Glory be to God on high
and on earth peace, good will towards men.
We praise thee. We bless thee.
We worship thee. We glorify thee.
We give thanks to thee for thy great glory.
Lord God, heavenly king,
God the Father almighty,
Lord the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, lamb of God, Son of the Father,
that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;
that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer;
that sittest at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For thou only art holy. Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only art most high, Jesus Christ.
With the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

I believe in one God,
the Father, the almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God.
Eternally begotten of the Father.
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God.
Begotten not made,
of one being with the Father:
through him all things were made.
For us men
and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit he became
incarnate of the virgin Mary:
and was made man. For our sake
he was crucified: under Pontius
Pilate he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures.
He ascended into heaven:
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He shall come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead:
and his kingdom shall have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,
the giver of life:
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified;
he has spoken through the Prophets.
I believe in one holy, catholic
and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead.
And the life of the world to come. Amen.

I believe in one God,
the Father, the almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God.
Eternally begotten of the Father.
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God.
Begotten not made,
of one being with the Father:
through him all things were made.
For us men
and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit he became
incarnate of the virgin Mary:
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified:
under Pontius Pilate
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures.
He ascended into heaven:
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He shall come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead:
and his kingdom shall have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,
the giver of life:
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified;
he has spoken through the Prophets.
I believe in one holy, catholic
and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead.
And the life of the world to come. Amen.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten son of God.
Born of his Father before all worlds.
God of God, light of light,
very God of very God,
begotten not made, being of one substance with the
Father, by whom all things were made.
Who for us men, and for our salvation,
came down from heaven, and was incarnate
by the Holy Ghost of the virgin Mary,
and was made man. And was crucified also for us
under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again according to
the scriptures. And ascended into heaven:
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
And he shall come again with glory to judge the quick
and the dead: whose kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy spirit, Lord and giver of life:
who proceedeth from the Father and Son,
who with the Father and Son is worshipped
and glorified: who spoke by the prophets.
And in one, holy, catholic
and apostolic church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the remission of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Most masses by Palestrina intentionally quote from other music; but his Missa brevis, or ‘short mass’, grows wholly out of his own invention, guided by the sounds and meanings of the words. This is a four-voice mass, but in the closing Agnus Dei, Palestrina splits the soprano line into a two-part canon, so that the mass can end with a glowingly radiant texture.